Chapter 588: The Most Popular Award

"Firstly, let's welcome the Oscar award winning screenwriter and national treasure, Mr. Chen Feng, to the stage to say a few words and present our first award."

As the crowd erupted into an applause, an old man with a head full of hair and black-framed glasses appeared on the glittery stage. He stood behind the microphone, clasped his hands together and began speaking in a loud and confident voice.

"Too many generic words have been said, so I won't say too much. I will simply mention one thing that has sparked my interest. The competition for this year's Best Newcomer Award has been fierce, and the popularity of the award has surpassed all the other awards this year. This is the first time this has happened on the Fei Tian Awards stage."

"So, I decided to watch the films of the women that were nominated: Yu Rong's 'Glory', Dai Ziwen's 'Old Tribe', Wang Siwen's 'Green-blooded Bullet' and, of course, Tangning's 'W.H.'. I also watched the film featuring the eliminated Yang Xi..."

"After watching all of them, I personally have a favorite. Of course, I won't mention any names just yet. I simply want to say that this particular film made me realize that there are still people out there willing to invest their entire soul into the acting profession."

"So, I have a deep respect for this particular actress. Because her hard work is no less than those of us that have been in the industry our entire lives."

"This is all I'm going to say. Following on, I will be announcing the winner of the 37th Annual Fei Tian Awards Best Supporting Actress. This will be the first award for the night. Every actor starts off as a supporting character and every director and screenwriter starts off as a rookie. I hope the winner of the Best Supporting Actress will some day become the Best Actress."

"Could everyone please look to the screen for the final results!"

As soon as Chen Feng finished speaking, the screen behind him began naming the nominees. Of course, a spotlight lit up each of the women one at a time. After a few rotations, the spotlight finally stopped on one of the women as the name of the award recipient appeared on the big screen.

During this time, Tangning's gaze happened to fall upon a certain person. A person that she had met once, but left a lasting impression.

Zhang Qingping.

This so-called 'President of the Film Association' and top grade actor and director, was currently sitting proudly, not too far from her.

Although the incident between them had happened quite some time ago, Han Yufan's mother and her husband, Director Zheng, had used this man to slander her in the past. At that time, Mo Ting had also said a few words to refute against him.

At that time, Mother Han had mentioned that this man was a judge for the Fei Tian Awards.

After such a long period of time, Tangning had already forgotten about this. But, the industry was small...

"What's wrong?" Mo Ting noticed something wasn't right.

Tangning pointed to the man with her chin and Mo Ting followed the direction of her gaze. As soon as he saw Zhang Qingping, he knew what she was thinking.

"I almost forgot that I had offended this man. If I had known..."

"It's fine," Tangning cut in. "You didn't do anything wrong. If he insists on involving personal grudges, then I'd rather not receive the award."

Mo Ting did not say anything. He simply ran his hand through Tangning's hair.

"Following on, please welcome our next guest presenter..."

According to the normal order of presentation, after the Best Supporting Actress was announced, the Best Newcomer Award was supposed to follow closely behind. After all, compared to the highly important awards at the end, The Best Newcomer Award did not hold much weight; it was simply a form of encouragement for rookies. Plus, winning a Best Newcomer Award did not guarantee that they would end up winning a Best Actress/Actor Award in the future. But, this year was a little different...

The organizers delayed the Best Newcomer Award towards the end...

All the guests sighed. It seemed, the Fei Tian Awards finally knew how to keep up with the times and play with gimmicks.

Of course, this proved that the competition for this year's Best Newcomer was fierce and was held in high esteem.

"Following on, we will be presenting the award for The Most Promising Director. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these young people for contributing to the film industry. It's because of you that the older generation feel deeply comforted and can see hope in the industry."

"The winner is...please look at the screen..."

"The director of 'W.H.', An Zihao."

An Zihao froze at the sound of his own name. He had not received any notification about this award and had simply shown up to be a guest presenter. He never expected to receive such a surprise.

The way that An Zihao was hurt by Cheng Tian and the way that he changed from being a manager to a director was all witnessed by Tangning. On top of that, his persistence during the filming of 'W.H.' was what encouraged Tangning and Bei Chendong to keep persevering.

So, seeing An Zihao receive an award, naturally made Tangning happy for her friend.

"Ting, Zihao received an award!" Tangning smiled. Mo Ting was surprised by this smile, because it had been a long time since he had seen such a simple and pure smile on her face.

She was simply happy because her friend had received an award.

"He will receive even more awards in the future," Mo Ting said as he watched An Zihao walk up onto the stage.

Tangning nodded her head before she listened intently to An Zihao's speech.

"I am very surprised," An Zihao began. "I never thought that I'd receive an award. 'W.H.' was my first film and a great start to my career as a director. As I stand up here, the first person I want to thank is Tangning."

"Thank you for not complaining and asking questions. For the sake of this film, she was willing to go to any lengths."

"She has always been a friend that I have truly respected."

"Secondly, I would like to thank Bei Chendong. Of course, I am referring to the fact that he participated in this film for free!"

"It was because of these two people that I truly understood how it felt to have a film come to life."

"As for my production team, they are all of the same heart. So, I won't go into too much detail about who else to thank. However, there is one more thing I would like to address."

"I hope that everyone can be nice to Tangning. She is truly a good person and extremely talented. But, I know she is constantly thrown into a storm and being hurt and attacked."

"Up here, I would like to declare that Tangning and I will forever be the best of friends! From today onwards, no matter what happens, I will be on her side!"

"So, Tangning..."

"Keep up the hard work!"

"Lastly, I know that everyone is waiting to see the winner of The Best Newcomer Award, so I won't take up any more of your precious time. I will now hand the stage back to the hosts." After speaking, An Zihao placed a kiss on his trophy.